Pharmaceutical article



Aug. 29, 1950 MYERS 2,520,852

PHARMACEUTICAL ARTICLE Filed Oct. 13, 1947 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR lg 65 5. 9&5.

Aug. 29, 1950 Filed-Oct. 13, 1947 L. H. MYERS PHARMACEUTI CAL ARTI CLE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR liald JET/L77 J A TTORNEYJ Patented Aug. 29, 1950 Lonis H Myers; Bryn Mawcra, as

Marlo Lab", Ina, Philadelphia, Fall; at corpora tion of Pennsylvania Appucationoaober 1a, 1947, serial No. 779,486

8 Claims.

My invention relates'to pharmaceutical articles.

A purpose'of my invention is to deal efficiently with storage problems in connection with relatively perishable pharmaceutical preparations.

A further purpose is to deal with such problems by providing a relatively non perishable pharmaceutical article readily convertible into an article which is ready for use and which in cludes a relatively perishable pharmaceutical preparation.

A further purpose is to deal with such prob* lems, where the relatively perishable preparation has solid and liquid ingredients less perishable than itself, by storing the ingredients in con-- tainer elements which eventually together with the pharmaceutical preparation will make up the pharmaceutical article'as marketed. v

A'further purpose is, wherea relativelyperishable pharmaceutical preparation is made up of perishable solid and liquid ingredients, to store the l'iquicl ingredientin "a bottle and thesolid ingredientin a pipette having a closed but openable'd'rop'per'end and forming a part of a drop-'- per cap for the bottle.

A further purpose is to reduce the danger of contamination in pharmaceutical products which are to be mixed after leaving the place" of manufacture.

A further purpose is to eliminate any loss of pharmaceutical materials incidentto mixing, and especially incident to pouring in connection with mixing, after the pharmaceutical materials have beenmanufactured.

Further purposes willapp'ear'in'the specification and in the claims.

My invention is illustrated in the drawings by embodiments chosen from the standpoints of convenience inillustration, satisfactory operation, andclear demonstration of the principles involved'.

Figures 1, 2, 3 and 4 are perspective views showing some of the components that maybe included in apharmaceutical article according to my invention. Figure 1 shows a bottle; Figure 2' shows showing an entire article after it has been assernbled by putting together the parts shown in Figures 5 and 6;

Figure 8 is a erspective View 'shr'iwin'g "a crep per cap-with its close 'end about to be removed.

FigureQ'is'apei'spective viewshowi'n'g a rd per cap just after'its dropper end has been is: moved.--

Figure -10 is a perspective View partially-broken away of a pharmaceutical article or my inveri tiOfl-Etfter the difipb er CaphaSb'BeH remcved-and the solid' substance 'has been er" itted' to" mix into the liquidsubstance.

Many pharmaceutical prepar'altions 'ir'iade u by mixing asolid with a liquidsubsta-iice (sue as distilled water) are in the resulting-liq id form but uetericraterapidiy in that form, Where as both the solid and liquid ingredients keep r'eas ilably Well separately; For example, p cillin rapidly loses-its efiect'iveness' in sol-tit but'in the dry stateretains' its-value for many months. Many silver salts used in treatmentor the mucous membrane-suchas silver nueleinate or silver vitellin (Ar yron are stable in dry state but solutions-of them rapidly deteriorate and become irritating to themembrane. Ma iodides, including sodium iodide and potassiodide, arestabl'e when dry, but in solu dize", liberating free iodine. Ph sostigimine salicylate' and other salts ofphysos-tigmine when dry are quite stable, but when dissolved irraqu'eou's liquids rapidly become discolored and harmful;- Bismuth subnitrate, when suspended in water, is unstable and throws down a precipitate;

Since the druggistcannot 'predictexactly such a drug will be needed for use; as a pro tical matter heca'nnotbuy such preparations" already mixed for thecu'storn'ers use. A great deal of inconvenience'in connection with the storage andmix'ing of ingredients re sulted thereby.-

The pharmaceutical article which I nave-in vented meets thisstorage problem a highly convenient and efiicient way.

This article" is'made up or a dropper bottle the lower endlofwhosed'rop "is cidsed 'or -tcg th withsolid" pharmaceutical substance r'esti gthe dropperand liquid "substance resting the bottle.

This article thusbe sold to the dru gist' by the manufacturer as a single unit, nd stered' just as sold. Thus when it is" desired to selYit for use by the public, the lower end of the drop peris" simply opened: up and the solid and liquid are permitted to inter-mingle; the dropper um?" being squeezed, and the bottle being shaken if around its upper opening, The lower end of the pipette is sealed off by an integral button 21, and the neck 28 of the pipette just above the button is weakened sufiiciently by a, slight circumferential groove 29 to ensure a clean break when it is desired to remove the button. The pipette should be of a substantially impervious material such as glass.

Cap head 30 (Figure-4) is the kind ordinarily used in dropper bottles, with external longitudinal grooves 3i, and internal threads 32 (see Figure 5). In Figure 5, there is a solid granular pharmaceutical substance 33 inside the pipette 25 in dropper'cap assembly 34, which includes bulb 23 and cap head 30 in addition to the pipette.

Figure 6 shows bottle 20, together with liquid substance 35 inside it. j Figure 7 shows the entire article as stored, including the dropper cap assembly, the solid substance, the liquid substance and the bottle, the dropper cap assembly having been screwed on the bottle. As can be seen, the solid and liquid are eifectively kept out of contact with each other by the impervious pipette wall and button.

Figures 8 to 10 show the article being converted into anordinary dropper bottle with a usable phamaceutical mixture inside.

In Figure 8, dropper cap assembly 34 together with the solid pharmaceutical substance therein has been removed from the bottle and the button 21 is being gripped by pliers 36.

In Figure 9, the button has been removed by these 'pliers, leaving small discharg end 31 of the pipette open.

Figure 10 shows the article after the cap has been'replaced and the bulb squeezed to cause the granular solid to pass through the opening at the small end of the pipette, forming particle cloud 38 through the liquid. After suflicient time and, if need be, agitation, the particle cloud will either all be dissolved in the liquid, or, where the particular solid is not sufi'iciently soluble in the particular liquid for that, whatever is left will be suspended more uniformly through it and the preparation will be'ready for actual use.

In the above process of mixing solid and liquid, care must be exercised that enough is done so that no undue concentration of solid remains in the dropper afterward. For this purpose, the dropper should be inspected "to see that all that was originally solid has gone into solution or suspension; and when the dropper has been replaced on the bottle after the inspection, the bulb should best besqueezed several times and after each time allowed to suck in fluid from the general interior of the bottle in order to end any temporary high concentration of suspended or dissolved matter in the dropper. r r 7 7 If the solid is intended eventually to be at least partly in suspension rather than entirely in solution in the liquid, it will of course be understood that the solid at the time of mixtur must be in 4 particles small enough to pass readily through the small discharge end of the pipette.

It will be understood that the pharmaceutical article of this invention, while it may include as solid and liquid substance any of those involved in the case of the drugs specifically mentioned earlier, is not limited to them, but could include any solid and liquid substance which together would make up a liquid pharmaceutical preparation more perishable than either the solid or the liquid alone. Thus, distilled Water is a very common liquid that might be involved, but, for example, in a'proper case the liquid might be a physiological salt solution, or glycerine or alcohol. Nor would it be limited to a mere carrier solution; for example, the liquid in the pharmaceutical article as sold to the druggist might itself be pharmaceutically active, or might already contain some pharmaceutically active ingredient which did not deteriorate unduly in the presence of that liquid, and. which was desired in the preparation ultimately used to have mixed with a solid'substance which did so deteriorate. Thus, one possible liquid would be boric acid solution, which itself has mildly antiseptic properties.

The specific substance and quantities to be used will, of course, follow whatever is desired from the standpoint of therapeutic needand pharmaceutical practice. Thus, a very common use of my invention would be to have physiological (4 grains per ounce) salt solution in the bottle, and to have penicillin in the pipette in a proportion of about 100,000 units to every cubic centimeter of solution.

It will be understood that theinvention is not limited to the particular form which has an integral glass button on the end of the pipette. It is sufficient that the end of the pipette be closed off effectively to prevent substantial intermixtur between the two substances.

It will readily be seen that the pharmaceutical article which I have invented will greatly reduce the inconvenience normally experienced in connection with storage and mixing of drugs which deteriorate too quickly when made up in a liquid mixture for use. The pharmacist need merely buy such a pharmaceutical article and store it. Then whenever a customer wants a dropper bottle with the made-up preparation in it, to convert the pharmaceutical article into what is desired is quite simple. Besides reducing the trouble to the pharmacist normally incident to measuring and mixing, it largely eliminates losses through spilling in; that process, and greatly reduces the danger of contamination with bacteria and other chem icals in mixing.

In view of my invention and disclosure variations and modifications to meet individual whim or particular need will doubtless become evident to others skilled in the art, to obtain all or part of the benefits of, my invention without copying the structure shown, and I, therefore, claim all such insofar as they fall within the reasonable spirit and scope of my claims.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Pat'- ent is:

1. In a pharmaceutical article, a bottle, a dropper cap on the bottle having a pipette the dropper. end of which is closed but alterable to form a normal dropper opening, and in the pipette a solid pharmaceutical substance which is adapted to constitute a solid ingredient of a usable liquid pharmaceutical preparation more perishablethan the substance.

2. A pharmaceutical article comprising a bottle, water in the bottle, a dropper cap on the bottle having a pipette the dropper end of which is closed but alterable to form a normal dropper opening, and in the pipette in solid form a drug which is used as part of an aqueous preparation but keeps better in solid form.

3. An article for pharmacists comprising a bottle, a dropper cap on the bottle having a pipette the dropper end of which is constructed to prevent intercommunication between pipette and bottle until altered, in measured quantity in the pipette a solid pharmaceutical substance to the deterioration of which the presence of carrier fluid would contribute, and in the bottle a predetermined quantity of carrier fluid for the substance.

4. In a pharmaceutical article, a bottle, a dropper cap for the bottle having a pipette the dropper end of which is closed but openable to perform its function in passing drops, in measured quantity in the pipette a solid pharmaceutical agent which deteriorates less rapidly in solid form than when in a liquid carrier, and in the bottle in predetermined proportional quantity a liquid pharmaceutical carrier for that agent.

5. In a pharmaceutical article, a bottle, a dropper cap for the bottle having a pipette the dropper end of which is closed but alterable to meter drops of liquid, in measured quantity in solid form in the pipette a pharmaceutical agent which is soluble for pharmaceutical purposes but which keeps better in solid form, in predetermined proportional quantity in the bottle a liquid suitable to dissolve the agent to form a desired usable pharmaceutical preparation.

6. A pharmaceutical article comprising a bottle, distilled water in the bottle, a dropper cap on the bottle having a pipette the dropper end of which is closed but alterable to form a normal dropper opening and, in the pipette, penicillin in solid form.

'7. A pharmaceutical article comprising a bottle, distilled water in the bottle, a dropper cap on the bottle having a pipette the dropper end of which is closed but alterable to form a normal dropper opening and, in the pipette, silver vitellin in solid form.

8. A pharmaceutical article comprising a bottle, distilled water in the bottle, a dropper cap on the bottle having a pipette the dropper end of which is closed but alterable to form a normal dropper opening and, in the pipette in solid form, an iodide which is unstable when in the presence of water.

LOUIS H. MYERS.

REFERENCES CITED FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date Great Britain Nov. 22, 1927 

